Hello again –
History tells us that Constantine likely, possibly, maybe knew some Greek ...
Yes, probably more comfortable in Latin. As someone educated to be Emperor, he'd surely speak everyday Greek, but was not an 'expert'.
He also composed sermons in Latin and had them professionally translated into Greek
Scholars sometimes reference the '
Oration of Constantine' (or '
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints') – a speech attributed to him, given at the Council of Nicaea. But this is about his gratitude to God and his role as a divine instrument to bring about peace and unity in the Church. He famously burnt a number of letters written to him by a number of bishops complaining about other bishops.
I don't know of any other sermons by Constantine?
... these individuals who gathered together at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD most of the leaders and rulers making the final decisions were unable to speak Greek
Actually, I think you'll find most did speak Greek – it was the most common language among the attendees.
There were somewhere between 250-320 bishops at Nicaea. Constantine had invited about 1,800, but only a fraction chose to attend.
Of that number,
only six or seven attendees were from the West. The rest were from the Eastern Empire, where the common language was Greek.
Most notable was the Spanish Bishop Hosius of Corduba (a Roman province in Spain), appointed by Pope Sylvester as his representative (along with the priests Vitus and Vincentius) – it's unknown whether he knew Greek. Hosius was theological adviser to Constantine.
It was Hosius who advocated using the Greek term 'homoousios' (consubstantiality) in the creed being formulated as a confession of faith. He wanted to ensure the understanding that Son is of the same essence as the Father – primarily to counter Arius.
Imagine the group of individuals there at the Council of Nicaea, most of them including Constantine could not even speak or read Greek or Hebrew, everything they discussed about the Scriptures had to be translated to them by translators who could speak and read Greek.
The Hebrew Scriptures would not have been discussed, but the attendees would know the New Testament.
The debates were not so much about what the Biblical texts said, but how they were to be
interpreted (not translated).
Sounds like a mass of confusion and manipulation
Not more than the usual
.
one would think that if the individuals who gathered together at the Council of Nicaea were going to make important decisions about faith they would at least have translated the Bible into a language they spoke and understood.
Oh, I'm sure they did. How could they have been appointed bishop if they didn't know the text? How could they preach if they didn't know the Bible?
As for the Hebrew Scriptures, they would have followed the Greek Septuagint, as did St Paul and the authors of the Gospels.
The Roman Catholic Church under Constantine were not Greek Speakers.
To be precise, there was no 'Roman Catholic Church' at the time of Constantine. There was just ... the Church. The Empire was bilingual, with Latin spoken in the West, and Greek spoken in the East, but their beliefs and theology was essentially the same.
The Catholic Church waited for nearly 500 years to translate and distribute a 500 year old ancient book to Latin Speaking people.
Translation was a time-consuming and hugely expensive process – there was no printing at the time.
Constantine wanted 50 Bibles produced for the Bishop of Constantinople in 331CE, but there's no record of the commission ever being completed. Producing Bibles in large quantities was simply out of the question.
There are Latin texts that pre-date Jerome's Vulgate – called the
Vetus Latina, numerous translations of various New Testament texts. And Jerome's Vulgate was a revision of the
Vetus Latina Gospels into contemporary Latin.
Instead what Rome did for the first 500 years after Jesus Christ - was gather together - other men's writings.
You mean the writings of the Fathers? Well, of course! But again, most of the Fathers were Greek and wrote in Greek. We had Tertullian, Cyprian and Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine, but the list of Greek Fathers goes on and on!
Same with the Jews, who had the Talmudic commentaries on their Scriptures.
the writings of other men, the scribbling and writings the dooldings, scratching and etching and drawings of other men's writings of moment. - the church fathers.
Yep, and thank God! The richest source of teaching materials outside the New Testament.
www.biblegateway.com
